


Inwardly

by Katherine



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Book Series: The Prophecies Begin, Diverging from canon, Enemies who used to be mentor and apprentice, Gen, Resentment, Tigerclaw was Firepaw's mentor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29027283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: Bluestar declared Tigerclaw was to be mentor to a kittypet.
Relationships: Firestar & Tigerclaw (Warriors)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 23
Collections: Bulletproof 20/21





	Inwardly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Schneefresser](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schneefresser/gifts).



Tigerclaw had resented not being given an apprentice this season, not that any of the latest kits showed much promise. He had, all the same, borrowed one when he could. Occasionally he asked the apprentice's mentor, but more directly lured the apprentice with extra training in stealth, or hunting, or battle.

Worse, however, than no apprentice of his own was when Bluestar declared he was to be mentor to a kittypet. Outwardly grave when they touched noses after Bluestar's formal words, inwardly Tigerclaw sneered at this soft tom-kit that Bluestar had named Firepaw. A kit who had probably bounced away from the Twolegplace as though it were a game, who still carried the stench of the Twolegs, his fluffy pelt flattened around his neck from a collar.

Firepaw knew nothing of Clan life. Tigerclaw would teach him.

* * *

Tigerclaw had been his mentor. Reluctantly, and often cruelly, but Firestar cannot forget that he learned to be a Clan cat under Tigerclaw's teaching. Tigerclaw taught him the borders of ThunderClan, fighting moves, hunting techniques, and the warrior code. All that had been absent from his previous months of life as a kit, as Rusty who lived with Twolegs.

The bond between mentor and apprentice is one of the strongest in Clan life. Firestar knows that from the mentor's side already, from his first apprentice. His special concern for Cinderpelt was not sundered by her injury, nor her being trained afterwards by Yellowfang, as a medicine cat instead of as a warrior.

Tigerclaw caused the death of loyal ThunderClan cats. He plotted with the prisoner Brokenstar within his Clan's camp. His treacherous actions led to Bluestar's death, the taking of her ninth life. Yet Firestar still deeply feels how much of who he is—recognised leader of ThunderClan despite not being Clanborn—he owes to Tigerclaw's mentoring.

Somewhere in exile, Tigerclaw must be plotting still. He has vowed revenge on Firestar himself. Firestar needs to guard against dangers from him, dangers to his Clan and perhaps to every cat in the forest. But still what Firestar remembers most sharply is his own pawsteps set where Tigerclaw led.


End file.
